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International prepaid wireless

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These are my notes on my experiences with international (extra-U.S.) prepaid wireless (mobile) service. I've mainly focused on mobile broadband Internet services, as that's what I tend to use when I travel, but many of these data services include voice minutes and SMS capabilities, although as of April 2014, data-only services are not uncommon.

Contents

How I select a carrier

Unlike the situation in the U.S., in most countries prepaid mobile service is very popular, and there are usually at least 3 carriers in each country that provide prepaid service, including 3G mobile broadband data. My process for selecting a carrier begins with several hours of research, primarily searching online forums for user testimonials. Generally speaking, I select a carrier using the following criteria, in order of importance:

  1. Data caps/quotas.
  2. 3G/LTE speeds.
  3. Coverage.
  4. Cost.

Usually, all of the carriers offer at least one prepaid plan with enough data to satisfy my needs, so in practice, 3G speeds and coverage are almost always the deciding factors. Note that as of 2012, it's quite common for prepaid plans to offer X amount of data at high speed (sometimes up to a theoretical 42mbps, but more commonly 7mbps), and then "unlimited" data at a lower speed (commonly 384kbps) until the period expires. I always favor the carrier with the highest full speed, as long as the full-speed quota is at least ~250MB.

Cost is the lowest priority because, frankly, international prepaid data services are usually so ridiculously cheap compared to what we pay in the U.S. that it's not worth bothering about it. I also don't usually worry about how many voice minutes and/or SMS messages are included, as I'm extremely unlikely to use them when traveling overseas. It's nice to know that you can make a local call to a hotel or restaurant to make a reservation, however, so I tend to avoid data-only plans unless they offer particularly compelling speeds versus their voice+data counterparts (or if I'm buying a plan for my iPad, of course).

In any case, you can generally assume that the carrier I've selected is reputed to be the best available as judged by these metrics. Whenever I make a choice using different value metrics, I will explain my reasoning. (Usually, it's because the overall fastest provider has poor coverage in an area I'll be visiting, but if I'm in a country or city with expensive/poor hotel WiFi, I might also select the carrier with the largest data caps, as it's likely I'll be tethering my laptop to my phone.)

Devices used

Unless otherwise stated, you should assume that I used these services with the latest GSM-model iPhone, running the latest release version of iOS, that was available at the time. These services may work with the hybrid CDMA/GSM-model "world phone" iPhone, but I can't confirm that; generally speaking, those devices should work fine as long as your CDMA carrier has unlocked the GSM portion of your device for use outside the country where you bought it. Note that since the iPhone 5, US Verizon iPhones are unlocked for both GSM and LTE use world-wide.

Note that none of these services will work with your mobile handset if it's locked to a carrier. You may encounter mobile shops in foreign countries that promise to unlock your handset. In the case of the iPhone, at least, this will probably be a "software unlock" that is unlikely to survive a software upgrade, as it requires a jailbreak, and may not be available for the latest release of iOS, so be sure to ask what catches are involved if you choose to pay for an unlock.

GSM frequencies

Around the world, 3G GSM service runs on different frequencies; the most common are 850, 900, and 2100 MHz. Recent-model GSM iPhones support all 3 of these frequencies, but you should check your model's Tech Specs on Apple's web site to be sure. Occasionally, you'll encounter a carrier that uses the oddball 1700 MHz frequency (e.g., T-Mobile USA). iPhones up to and including the iPhone 4S do *not* support this frequency; if you choose one of these carriers, your phone will probably run only at EDGE speeds. All of the carriers I mention in these notes use iPhone-compatible 3G GSM frequencies, unless otherwise noted.

Be particularly careful with Android GSM phones, especially the Nexus models sold directly by Google: in the U.S., these phones are often designed for use with T-Mobile USA, which means they may not support one or more of the common 3G GSM frequencies required by the carriers described in these notes.

APNs

In online forums, or on the carrier's support page, you will often be directed to set your phone's APN to enable the mobile data service. In my experience, this is never necessary if you're using an iPhone, presumably because the APN settings are provided on the SIM card and the iPhone knows how to find it, or possibly because iOS contains a built-in database of APNs for all of the carriers I describe in these notes. In any case, you shouldn't need to worry about this setting if you're using an iPhone. (Note: except in Japan with b-mobile, see below.)

Mobile Hotspot/tethering

Since 2011, it's been my experience that most international prepaid mobile data plans include support for iOS's Mobile Hotspot functionality (a.k.a., tethering) without any additional charges. I indicate below which carriers provided Mobile Hotspot.

ID requirements

While it's probably the official policy of every carrier that foreigners must present a passport to sign up for mobile service, in practice this is rarely enforced. The few times I've been asked to present identification are usually when I've signed up for service at one of the carrier's own retail outlets, but even then it's a rare occurrence. (Ironically, most of the times I've been required to present ID have been while visiting a liberal democracy; neither China Unicom nor Vinaphone asked for any ID at all!)

I have indicated for which carriers I was required to provide my passport. If I don't mention it, then it wasn't required. My advice is to bring your passport when signing up, just in case, but don't present it unless asked. If you're uncomfortable with this requirement, in most countries you can probably get around it by signing up at an independent mobile shop or convenience store.

Things change, quickly

For each carrier, I make note of when I last used it. Things are changing rapidly in the wireless service industry, so the specifics of each plan (price, performance, quotas, even the name of the plan) may have changed by the time you try to sign up. Please check the carrier's web site (and the numerous online forums, where there are always ongoing discussions about such things) for the latest information.

Other resources

The Prepaid with Data Wiki is a fantastic resource for information on all of the countries I cover here, plus many more. It should probably be your first stop for information. My notes will generally provide more detail and anecdotes for the particular carriers I've chosen to use, but they don't have the breadth that the Prepaid with Data Wiki has.

Austria

Austria has several good choices (see Prepaid with Data Wiki). I chose A1 due to its excellent coverage and great value — just 10€ for a pre-paid SIM with 1GB of data (over 12 months) included.

As of June 2014, as with many other European countries at the time, Austrian carriers are rolling out LTE, but it's not available to pre-paid customers.

A1

Last used June 2014

After the PITA of signing up for prepaid service in its northern neighbor Germany, activating service on Austria's A1 could not have been easier. I walked into the A1 retail store at Schwedenplatz in Vienna, plunked down 20€ for 2 pre-paid "B.free internet" data-only SIMs, and by the time I put the SIMs into my devices, the service had already been activated.

For the cost of 10€, A1's B.free internet plan gives you 1GB of data, good for a 12-month period. iOS tethering is enabled on this plan. 3GB/30 day plans are available for a bit more, but I didn't need it for my short stay in Austria. The store assistant spoke perfect English and did all the work needed to activate the service. The Schwedenplatz store even had proper nano-SIMs for my iOS devices. (The A1 store at Wien Westbanhof, where I went to get a 3rd SIM for my iPad, did not have pre-packaged nano-SIMs, but did have a SIM cutter, and my experience there was otherwise just as smooth as it was at Schwedenplatz.)

No ID was required for sign-up, nor did I need to provide an Austrian address, or any other personal information, for that matter.

Coverage in Vienna was excellent. 3G service works well in buildings, unlike my experience in Germany.

Speeds in Vienna were decent. Allegedly, A1's speeds are not as good as what Drei provides for its larger per-month plans (4mbps on A1 vs. up to 10mbps on the largest Drei plans), but based on my experience in other European countries to date, in practice the 3G speeds on mobile devices all seem pretty much the same, whatever the theoretical maximums. Therefore, in most cases in Europe, it's my opinion that choosing one carrier over another based on theoretical 3G speeds is not particularly important. Perhaps this situation will change once LTE is widely available to pre-paid customers.

Given that A1 provides the best coverage in Austria; has good speeds; is trivially easy to sign up for (assuming you visit an A1 store); activates instantly; and provides 1GB of data for 10€ (including SIM); I would say that, in my experience so far, A1 is the best pre-paid data deal in Europe. I would definitely use them again.

Czech Republic

Czech Republic has several good options for pre-paid data. Several supermarket chains even have their own MVNOs! I chose O2 because it has the best coverage and speeds, and because their 375MB in 7 days plan is quite cheap. I had only a short stay, so that was enough for me. Other providers offer more competitive plans for longer stays; see Pre-paid with Data Wiki for more information.

O2

Last used June 2014

Signing up for O2's pre-paid plan could not have been simpler. I simply walked into an O2 store in a mall in Prague, asked one of the store assistants for 2 SIMs with the 375MB/7 day plan, and let her do the rest. The total cost was 300 CZK (about 14 USD at the time). They did not have nano SIMs for use with 2013-model iOS devices, but they did have a SIM cutter, and were able to convert their standard-/micro-SIMs with no trouble. The assistant spoke great English, did all of the work to activate both the SIM cards and the Internet plan, and within minutes we were online with O2.

Speeds in Prague were excellent, and we got 3G coverage nearly everywhere, even inside large buildings, which was a pleasant surprise after Germany's terrible indoor coverage. O2 in Czech Republic is rolling out LTE, but it was not available to pre-paid customers as of June 2014.

Note that despite what the Pre-paid with Data Wiki said at the time I used O2's service, iOS tethering worked fine for me. Both my wife and I were able to tether our laptops to our iPhones without difficulty. As supposed lack of tethering support was the only real drawback to O2 versus the other pre-paid carriers, the fact that it actually works makes choosing O2 a no-brainer, in my opinion.

My only disappointment was that coverage on my train from Prague to Vienna was essentially useless when not stopped at train stations. The phone often showed EDGE service with several bars, but latencies were multi-second and data only came through in moderate, intermittent bursts.

Overall, O2 was excellent and I would not hesitate to use it again if I return to Czech Republic. I was even able to use my Czech Republic O2 service for data roaming in Vienna for a few hours before running out of credit from my initial 150 CZK purchase.

Germany

Signing up for pre-paid mobile service in Germany is surprisingly difficult. The best pre-paid data options (as of April 2015) are offered by "online-only" MVNOs — these providers do not have a retail presence to help you with activation problems or questions. Additionally, their web sites are in German only, with no English option. Google Chrome with its built-in support for on-the-fly translation is your friend here, and it does a very good job, but there are occasional confusing or inscrutable translations, nonetheless.

On the bright side, pre-paid SIMs and vouchers/recharges are available at numerous retailers, so they're easy to find once you know what you're looking for. No ID is required to purchase SIMs. However, even the big-box electronics retailers such as Saturn, with relatively knowledgeable sales staff, are generally not able to assist you in setting up your pre-paid service, apparently due to German law. Essentially, you're on your own, and activating your service can be a frustrating experience.

My advice, as of April 2015, is to do the following:

  • Use the Pre-paid with Data Wiki as a reference. It has more (and probably more up-to-date) information than you'll find here, though you'll find that this wiki is more helpful with the small details, at least for the carriers I cover.
  • As you should not expect to get in-store help from the sales associates, it doesn't particularly matter where you purchase the SIM and your initial voucher/top-op credit, so just pick the first place that's convenient. See the Pre-paid with Data Wiki for an up-to-date list of retail locations. Personally, I used Müller for Congstar and Saturn for blau.de.
  • Your SIM may come with credit; check the latest details on the Pre-paid with Data Wiki for more information. My blau.de SIM, for example, included €9 credit, so with just a €15 blau.de voucher, I was able to sign up for the 5GB flat-rate Internet package and still have a few euro credit remaining.
  • If your device requires a nano-SIM, bring a SIM cutter with you. All of the pre-paid SIMs that I saw were micro-SIMs (inside a perforated full-size SIM template). If you forget to bring one, the Conrad near Marienplatz in München sells nano-SIM cutters.

When signing up for service, you'll be asked for your German residence, and a land line phone number. I was able to use my hotel's address and phone number for this step, and it worked fine. Guessing the correct phone number format was tricky; the general format appears to be 0NN NNNNNNN. If you search Google for the name of your hotel, and Google provides a summary of your hotel's information on the first page of search results, the number displayed by Google is probably the one you should use.

Another oddity of German mobile service, which I experienced with both Congstar and blau.de, is that coverage inside some buildings is extremely poor. Service often degraded from LTE/3G to EDGE when we entered buildings, even only a few feet from the entrance or windows. I noticed this in both München and Berlin. Many German buildings are stone or concrete, but I have not experienced this phenomenon in other Central/Eastern European countries with similarly constructed old buildings (e.g., Prague). Perhaps the use of higher frequency bands is more common in Germany. (Note that as of April 2015, blau.de LTE service works quite well indoors in most Berlin locations I visited, except for Mitte; there's something about Mitte that oddly renders blau.de data service pretty much unusable indoors.)

blau.de

Last used April 2015

blau.de is an MVNO on the e-plus network. The Pre-paid with Data Wiki states that e-plus has excellent speeds in urban areas, and as of early 2015 they have merged with O2 to provide very good coverage all over the country. This matches my experience and is an improvement over my last visit in May 2014. On a train from Köln to Berlin, my blau.de service was on 3G or better for pretty much the entire trip.

blau.de has 2 advantages over Congstar, the other pre-paid service that I used during my May 2014 trip:

  • They offer a 5GB over 30 days plan, whereas Congstar's largest monthly plan is 3GB; both are roughly the same price (around €20).
  • As they're on the e-plus network, they're one of the only providers to offer LTE service to their pre-paid customers. As of April 2015, neither Congstar nor any of the other Telekom- or O2-based pre-paid MVNOs offer LTE service to pre-paid customers. At least some Vodafone-based MVNOs apparently do offer LTE for a surcharge now, but I haven't tried any of those, so I can't compare.

When I had previously used blau.de in May 2014, their LTE service did not work on iPhones, only iPads; but I'm happy to report that as of April 2015, it now works with both iPhones and iPads, including tethering at no additional charge.

blau.de's LTE service is quite fast, usually better than any WiFi service offered by your hotel, apartment, or cafe, in my experience.

Despite what the Pre-paid with Data Wiki may claim, blau.de's 3G service is limited to 7.2mbit HSDPA (verified by blau.de's own documentation about their pre-paid service). However, the 3G performance was fairly good and the 3G/LTE coverage was excellent.

If you exceed your 5GB plan within 30 days, you'll be severely rate-limited on GPRS service, but you can re-fill your quota before the 30 days is up with another 5GB of high-speed data for an extra €5. (You may be able to do this multiple times per month, but I did not try it.)

Signing up for blau.de is a hassle since the entire process is in German (again, Google Chrome with auto-translate is very helpful), and it does require an Internet connection — I signed up for mine using the WiFi at the Apple Store München. During the sign-up process, you may be presented the option of selecting an Internet package. I was only presented with the 1GB option for €10 and declined to select it, knowing that I would choose the 5GB plan later.

Once the sign-up is complete, you may have to wait awhile before your service is activated. After completing the sign-up online, I placed my SIM in my iPad mini and waited for over 4 hours before moving the SIM to my iPhone in desperation to try something that would trigger the activation. As soon as I did that, my service lit up and I received 3 or 4 SMSes from blau.de in rapid succession, so it may be the case that you need to activate the SIM using a smartphone (perhaps for access to the SMS network?) before using it in a tablet or mobile hotspot device.

Once that was done, I was able to add to my account the blau.de credit that I'd purchased at Saturn (Credit is also available at DM and Rossman, among other shops. The blau.de web site offers the option of adding a credit card for automatic top-ups, but I could not get my US-issued Chase Visa or American Express to work with it.) The credit was not processed immediately, and I had to wait at least another 30 minutes before that happened. Note that, after the credit is added to your account, there may be an additional delay of 20-30 minutes before it's reflected on your account page at the blau.de website; you may or may not receive an SMS noting the activation (seemed to vary for me on 3 different accounts), but you will always receive an email indicating that your account has been credited.

Anyway, after you have enough credit on your account, you can easily add an Internet flat-rate plan via your account page on the blau.de website. That was activated fairly quickly, and I did receive an SMS (on my phones) that the plan was active.

On your iOS device, you may need to override your APN settings to get data service. (I had to do this with all 3 of my iOS devices after activating blau.de service in April 2015.) See the Pre-paid with Data Wiki for the details. Note that if you do manually override your APN settings, or install a mobile provider profile, you may need to reset these when you insert your original SIM (or another pre-paid SIM) into the phone in order to activate that SIM's service.

Overall, I am quite happy with blau.de and would use it again (as, in fact, I did when I returned to Germany in April 2015).

Congstar

Last used May 2014

Congstar is an MVNO on the Deutsche Telekom network offering pre-paid service. Telekom offers their own pre-paid service, but their largest monthly data plan is only 200MB.

As noted above, Congstar's monthly data plans are not competitive with blau.de's. Congstar used to have much better nation-wide coverage than blau.de, but since the e-plus/O2 merger circa April 2015, in my experience, blau.de's coverage is now good enough to eliminate any advantage Congstar may have had previously.

Obtaining Congstar service was practically the same as blau.de: pick up a SIM and enough prepaid credits/vouchers to activate the plan you want (I bought mine at a Müeller's), then visit their web site. As with blau.de, you will obviously need Internet access in order to sign up. The sign-up process is similarly frustrating and obscure (no English instructions), and, as with blau.de, it took 3 or 4 hours for my service to activate. I eventually received e-mail and a few SMS's (pretty much simultaneously) informing me that my service was activated. I did not try to activate Congstar on a tablet, so I don't know whether a phone is needed for activation as it apparently was on blau.de.

Very important note: When signing up for Congstar service on their web site, you'll be presented with the option of activating an Internet plan at the same time. I believe the Google translation said something to the effect of, "Sign up now and you can add credits later to activate the plan." I made the mistake of doing this on one of the two Congstar SIMs that I activated, and it was a big mistake! I could find no way to add Congstar credit voucher codes on their web site; I was only able to do this via SMS once the service was active. However, as I had pre-selected an Internet plan during registration, as soon as my service activated, Congstar immediately attempted to activate the Internet plan as well. Because I didn't have enough credit on the account yet to pay for the plan I'd selected during registration, the Internet plan activation failed. To my dismay, even after adding the credits to the account via SMS, the Internet plan did not immediately activate. After trying to sign up for the Internet plan again several times (via web site and SMS), I eventually received a message indicating that the plan was already pending and that they would re-try activation in 24 hours; and in fact, that is what happened — just over 24 hours later, I was informed by e-mail and SMS that the Internet plan had finally gone into effect. Up to that point, any data I used on that phone came out of the credits I'd added, and was billed at expensive per-MB rates. So, the bottom line is this: do not sign up for an Internet plan during Congstar registration. Wait until your service is activated, then add your credits via SMS, then wait for confirmation of your credit top-up, and only then sign up for your Internet plan via SMS or on the web site. (SMS is a bit easier; see the paper pamphlet that came with your SIM for instructions.) I did that on the 2nd SIM that I activated, and in that case the Internet plan was activated only a few minutes after I sent the SMS.

iOS tethering was available, though I did not use it as I had LTE service on blau.de via my iPad.

Given blau.de's better Internet plans and LTE service, I can see no reason to choose Congstar over blau.de at this time.

Hungary

I chose Magyar Telekom (still known by many locals as T-Mobile) based on their superior coverage, even though I was only in Budapest.

Magyar Telekom (T-Mobile)

Last used: June 2014

I signed up for Magyar Telekom pre-paid service (known as "Domino") at a mall in Budapest. The mall had 2 Telekom stores, for some reason; the one I chose may have been operated by a third-party retailer using the Telekom branding, but as far as I could tell, there was no practical difference. The English at this store was pretty poor, but we managed. I could not convince the store to sell me a Domino Surf package for 2950 HUF, only the Domino 5 package for 4050 HUF. (I did not even see the Domino Surf package advertised.)

The process was very slow and probably took a total of about 30 minutes, as the shop assistant had to walk to the other Telekom store in the same mall to get the SIMs, and there was a surprisingly large amount of paperwork to print out and for me to sign — 3 or 4 signatures were required for each SIM! I did have to provide my passport for identification purposes, but I was not asked for a local address.

I asked the assistant to activate the Netplusz L 1GB/30 days package for each SIM. The service was active on our iPhones shortly after we left the store, though we received no indication that the Netplusz L package had been activated, only a few SMSes informing us that we had 150MB of data to use; however, we did go well over that 150MB budget and didn't have any problems, nor were our credit balances affected by Internet usage.

Sending SMSes, however, did affect our credit balances, and quite rapidly. After sending just a dozen texts, I was unable to send any more on my phone. A quick check of my remaining balance indicated that I had in fact depleted it. As I started with 2790 HUF of credit and used only 1290 HUF to activate the NetplusZ L plan, this means that sending 12 texts used up my entire remaining 1500 HUF credit. (It may also have been affected by receiving a roughly equal number of texts.) Adding another 1500 HUF was trivial — just find a local ABC convenience store, hand the clerk 1500 HUF and provide your phone number when prompted — but I was shocked how expensive texting is on Magyar Telekom compared to every other pre-paid service I've encountered in Europe.

Data speeds were good (3G only, no LTE for pre-paid customers as of June 2014) and coverage was excellent around all Budapest, even indoors. On the train from Budapest to Vienna, coverage was spotty and essentially not particularly useful. Tethering on iOS devices is supported.

Note that before walking to the official Magyar Telekom store, I did find at least one independent mobile shop selling Telekom Domino SIMs, but they were charing a 1050 HUF mark-up (~5100 HUF for the 4050 HUF Domino 5 starter pack). The shop owner claimed that the SIM was already activated and that I would not have to go to a Telekom store to register it, but I declined to purchase my SIMs here because of the mark-up and my uncertainty about his claim. In retrospect, it might have been worth a try as it would have saved me time and hassle if his claim were true.

I think that if I were to do it again, I might try Vodafone rather than Magyar Telekom, based mainly on my slightly negative experience with Telekom, even though I was fairly happy with Telekom's speed and coverage.

Japan

Non-residents cannot sign up for standard mobile service in Japan — not even pre-paid. However, as of March 2014, there is at least one service that will "rent" you a data-only SIM.

b-mobile

Last used: March 2014

b-mobile will rent you a GSM SIM, good for 14 days or until you reach your data cap (if applicable). Supposedly you can renew your service for an additional period before expiration, though I did not try this myself. Because there is no requirement to return the SIM to b-mobile, in reality this is just like purchasing a SIM that's only useable for 14 days — it's not really a rental.

The most important thing about the b-mobile service is that you purchase the SIM(s) about a week before you enter the country. Just fill out the purchase forms on their web site and tell them where to send the SIM (in Japan). Generally, you will have 2 choices of where to send it: your hotel, or the airport (Narita, at least; not sure about the possibility of sending it to other Japanese international airports). I was worried I'd forget to pick up the SIMs at Narita before heading into Tokyo, so I had mine sent to the hotel, where they were ready at check-in as promised.

The service is fairly straightforward to use, with one catch. iOS, as of version 7.1, does not seem to have the proper APN settings for b-mobile's service built-in, so you'll need to configure the APN settings yourself. The easiest way to do that is to download their APN profile, which works on both the iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, and iPad mini, despite b-mobile's implication that it only works on the iPhone 5S and 5C. Once you've done that, simply reboot the phone and, assuming you've already inserted the b-mobile SIM, you'll be online. If you see an error message stating something about a "PDP error," that means your APN settings aren't correct. Note: when you get home and insert your home provider's SIM back in your iOS device, you'll need to delete the b-mobile APN profile from the Settings app in General > Profiles before you can use your home service again.

b-mobile is an overlay network/MVNO running on top of Docomo, Japan's biggest mobile service provider. As such, you can expect the service to be ubiquitous across Japan. I only used it in greater Tokyo, but service was available absolutely everywhere I tried it, even in subway tunnels. On my iPhone 5S and my wife's iPhone 5, we were limited to 3G service, but on my iPad mini, we had LTE service. However, it seemed to run quite a bit slower than the 3G service, so we eventually disabled LTE on the iPad mini and used 3G, instead.

As of April 2014, b-mobile offers 2 services: 1 GB capped option (good up to 1GB of data or 14 days, whichever comes first), or a 14-day "unlimited" option. The unlimited option caps your speeds at 300kbps. However, if you read the fine print, you'll also discover that if you use more than about 360MB over 3 consecutive days on the unlimited plan, they'll throttle you even further. I poo-pooed this warning when I decided to purchase the unlimited option, figuring that I didn't want to worry about rationing my data usage with the 1GB plan, but both my wife and I (using separate SIMs) did in fact get severely throttled after just a few days. Our data speeds until that time were reasonable; however, after that, they became abysmal and never recovered for the remainder of our trip. In fact, the performance was so bad that we basically stopped using our mobile data for recreational use and mainly limited it to finding things and navigating in Google Maps. Next time I visit Japan, if b-mobile is still the only option available, I will probably order multiple 1GB SIMs and just keep swapping them out when they run out of data. The 360MB limit is just too easy to burn through.

Mobile Hotspot was available on my iOS devices, though I did not test it.

Note that purchasing one of these b-mobile SIMs does not give you access the Docomo WiFi hotspots that you find all over Tokyo, nor anyone else's hotspots, for that matter. For convenient and fairly widely available WiFi, go to a Starbucks, grab one of their fliers about signing up for Starbucks Japan WiFi (the fliers have clear English instructions), and sign up for that. It's free with the purchase of a drink, and was always pretty fast.

Thailand

Thailand has a robust, competitive prepaid mobile market. As of August 2012, True Move's new True-H service offers the fastest 3G data service, though it's a little more expensive than the other providers.

True-H

Last used: August 2012

True-H is True Move's latest 3G network. It's marketed as a "3G+" network, and as of August 2012 has pretty good coverage in Thailand. I got fast 3G speeds all over Ko Samui and Bangkok. When the True-H network isn't available, your phone will roam on the older True 3G service, with slower (but still 3G-quality) speeds. True also has numerous WiFi hotspots all over Bangkok, though their access portal is annoying. (It doesn't work with Mobile Safari's "remember password" service, so you have to type your user ID and password each time you sign on.)

The True-H prepaid plans provide up to 42Mbps service, depending on your phone's radios. This high-speed service works up to a plan-specific data limit, after which you can get "unlimited" data at 256kbps, for the remainder of your service period.

True-H prepaid provides Mobile Hotspot functionality for no additional charge.

When signing up, make sure you ask for a True-H iPhone SIM; the iPad SIMs don't have voice or SMS service (and cost the same). These SIMs are available in every city, probably at the BKK airport, and are offered at arrivals in Ko Samui airport. The cost should be around 99 baht (small shops may mark it up by ~50 baht). I signed up at Ko Samui and was not asked for my passport.

Your SIM will come with a measly 75MB of data and about 50 baht worth of credit for voice and SMS. To take advantage of one of the generous True-H data plans, you'll need to buy some TrueMoney credits. These are available at any 7-11 or MiniMart, and these shops are all over Thailand, even in rural areas. Simply tell the cashier that you want to buy TrueMoney. (There will probably be a True sign near the counter; just point to it.) Look at this page, choose the plan you want, and buy enough TrueMoney credit to pay for one month of service:

http://www.truemove-h.com/en//prepay/prepay-topping.aspx

The cashier will print a receipt/voucher for you and take your money. You add the TrueMoney credit to your phone by dialing the short-code number listed on the receipt, and then entering the TrueMoney PIN printed on the receipt. The money will instantly be credited to your account. After the money is credited to your account, simply dial the code listed next to the plan you'd like. In August 2012, I purchased the 899 baht package (dial *900*46# to activate it).

Note that in Ko Samui, and possibly in other Thailand resort airports, you will be greeted after you collect your baggage by people handing out True SIMs for free, obviously hoping that you'll sign up for a plan. (Ingenious!) Tell them you want a True-H SIM instead. You'll have to pay for the SIM, but the speed boost is worth it. It wouldn't surprise me if they're handing out True-H SIMs instead in the near future, as True is trying to migrate existing customers to the new network.

Notes

Australia

As of December 2009, there were at least 4 carriers providing prepaid 3G service: Optus, Vodafone, Telstra nextG, and 3 (which is, I believe, a Telstra MVNO in Australia). I've had good luck with 3 and Vodafone in Europe, and normally would have selected one of those two, but I was road tripping between Sydney and Melbourne, and I'd read that Telstra had the best 3G coverage outside the major cities, so I chose them.

Telstra nextG

Last used: December 2009

I signed up for Telstra nextG at one of their large retail stores in Sydney. The staff was friendly and helpful. I don't recall whether I was asked for a passport. I don't have many notes about the experience, but signup was straightforward, and the 3G coverage was good, as promised. The 3G speeds were not particularly fast, but this was a case where coverage trumped all else.

I don't recall whether Telstra nextG worked with Mobile Hotspot.

Italy

Both the Prepaid with Data Wiki and the Internet at large warn that you will often need a codice fiscale (essentially a national tax ID) to register for prepaid mobile service in Italy. However, I was not asked for one when signing up for either TIM or Tre in June 2014.

Tre (3)

Last used: June 2014

Tre offers a very good deal for pre-paid data, especially for a large country like Italy: 1GB pre-paid data good for 30 days for only 10€. (You pay 10€ for the SIM and get 5€ credit, which can be used to activate the 1GB plan.) They also offer LTE service to their pre-paid customers, which sounds great until you realize that it's only available in a pretty limited number of cities as of June 2014. If you'll be spending time in Rome, Milan, etc., you'll probably be covered, but outside the large cities, probably not. Notably, Venezia does not have LTE coverage as of June 2014.

I signed up for Tre at one of their official stores in Trieste. (The first Tre store I visited was very small and told me that they could not handle new customers, so I had to visit a larger store a few km away.) The sign-up process was relatively painless — only my passport was required, no codice fiscale or other information needed — but it probably took 40 minutes to register for 2 SIMs, which is easily the longest I've ever had to wait in a store for pre-paid mobile service. To be fair, the assistant was very helpful and extremely nice, and I had the impression that he was jumping through a lot of hoops to activate our service with a minimum of hassle/information on our parts. He also very graciously added 3€ worth of free credit to our accounts, which was useful for sending SMSs during our stay in Italy. (If you ever sign up for Tre in Trieste, go to the retail store near the marble stairs on Corso Umberto Saba and ask for Ricardo!)

Activation was fairly quick. Tre offers a very handy iOS app called "Area Clienti 3," available on the US App Store, which can show you your balance, which plan(s) you're signed up for, how much data you've used during your cycle, etc.

As noted above, pre-paid LTE service is available on Tre, but the coverage area is very limited as of June 2014. Tre was offering the LTE service for only a 1€ additional charge until 30 June 2014 (due to increase to 9€ after), but our helpful assistant at the Tre store informed us that it would be a waste of money for us as we were only visiting Trieste and Venezia on this trip. At any rate, Tre's 3G coverage was extensive in both Trieste and Venezia, and the speeds were quite good.

I did not test whether Tre's data-only plans support voice calls, but I was able to send and receive texts to/from other Italian mobile numbers using the additional 3€ credit that our helpful Tre assistant added to our accounts. Tethering on iOS devices may technically be against the terms of service (I did not check), but it works fine, in any case.

The only major downside to Tre is that their indoor coverage is abysmal — probably the worst I've encountered in Europe, including Germany. Effectively, once you enter a building in Italy, even just a few feet inside a door, your Tre service will disappear; and not just your data service: the voice/SMS service drops, as well. Tre helpfully offers voice/SMS roaming on TIM, whose voice/SMS signals worked reasonably well indoors. However, as I was only really interested in data service, this did me no good; in fact, the TIM roaming was actually a hinderance, as your phone will automatically switch to TIM when you enter a building, and then stay connected to TIM for a bit after you leave. This means that you're without data for an indefinite time until your phone decides it's time to re-connect to Tre. Our helpful Tre assistant actually advised us to disable the Automatic carrier setting on our iPhones and to choose "3 ITA" manually, in order to avoid this issue. That helped a bit, but our phones still would often go a few minutes without data service after exiting a building.

I was able to get Tre working well enough inside our hotel room by placing the phone near the window, but obviously this isn't ideal. TIM's 3G service worked slightly better, but this may be down to my using it in an iPad mini (see below).

Other than the indoor coverage issue, Tre was pretty good, especially considering the price. Still, the general flakiness of Italian WiFi/broadband and the indoor coverage issue present a dilemma. Are TIM and Vodafone worth the extra cost for slightly better indoor coverage than Tre? I don't really have a good answer as of June 2014.

TIM.it

Last used: June 2014

Disappointed that Tre's LTE service was not available in Trieste or Venezia, I signed up for TIM's pre-paid 4G plan to use with my iPad, primarily for tethering. (Flaky WiFi is sadly still a reality in Italian hotels in 2014.) TIM's site showed 4G coverage in both cities. Unfortunately, I was never able to stay connected to the LTE network for very long; the iPad would always fall back to 3G service. Presumably TIM's LTE coverage will improve, and it's probably better in the larger, more southern Italian cities, but caveat emptor.

Signing up for TIM at an official TIM store in Trieste was just as easy as it was for Tre. It took 10 minutes, but little involvement from me, and it was still a good 30 minutes shorter than the excruciatingly long Tre sign-up process. I did have to provide my passport, but no codice fiscale or other information was required.

The 3G service worked well enough; though, as with Tre, there were serious problems with service indoors. It was slightly better than Tre, but only just — basically, where Tre would drop out completely only a few feet inside a building, TIM's service stayed connected a few feet deeper. (The difference may be down to the antenna on the iPad mini vs. the iPhone 5/5S; I did not test this theory, however.)

Tethering on iOS devices works with this 4G plan, but I believe it's not officially supported on the smaller/cheaper pre-paid data plans, though I did not confirm this.

The TIM prepaid 4G plan comes with a very generous 10GB of data, but it's probably only worth the cost (10€ for the SIM and 30€ for the plan) if you're going to be in big cities like Rome, Milan, etc. for multiple weeks. I would consider TIM on my next trip to Italy (especially if the state of Italian hotel WiFi has not improved by then), but I would probably give Tre or Vodafone a try first.

France

I visited France in June 2011. The prepaid data plans in France at that time were among the worst I've encountered in my travels. All of them had some kind of catch or major drawback. My notes aren't entirely clear, but I believe that I signed up for an SFR Pass Internet 3G+ plan.

Since then, the excellent Free ISP has shaken up France's wireless industry with a very attractive prepaid offering. If I were visiting France today, I would sign up with Free without hesitation; keep that in mind as you read my descriptions here.

Orange Mobicarte

Note: I did not use this service, but I will provide my notes from June 2011, anyway

The SIM costs ~8 euro. It reportedly takes up to 48 hours for activation, which is one reason why I did not choose them. (I was only in Paris for about 4 days total.)

The costs were 200MB/mo for 8 euro, 1GB/mo for 25 euro, and 2GB/mo for 39 euro. The 200MB/mo plan meters port 993, 25, 587 traffic and uses your voice/SMS credit (rapidly, apparently!) for these services, for some bizarre reason. The 1GB and 2GB plans include unlimited email traffic.

All plans include access to Orange WiFi hotspots.

There are iPad plans as well as "smartphone" plans. I'm not sure if iPad plans are any better or worse; the prices are the same, anyway. The iPad plans might be rechargeable in less-granular quantities than smartphone plans.

SFR Pass Internet 3G+

Last used: June 2011

There are SFR retail locations all over Paris. You need a passport and a local address to sign up, but you can use your hotel address. Activation is immediate.

A SIM is 10 euro. The 500MB/mo plan is 25 euro, 1GB/mo plan is 35 euro. There is no port-based profiling as with Orange.

Mobile Hotspot did not work. You can run a jailbreak tethering service such as TetherMe, but it's said that HTTP data is proxied or "portaled" so that it requires all browsers to use a Mobile Safari user agent setting. (See http://blog.zs64.net/2010/10/prepaid-mobile-data-in-france/ for details.) A VPN is required to work around this.

Overall the SFR service was decent in Paris, but relatively expensive and certainly nothing to get excited about. Go with Free.

UK

3 PAYG

Last used: June 2011

15 GBP/mo for 5GB and tons of minutes/texts. Had a great experience with it June 2011. Speeds were great, coverage was excellent in London. I don't think it worked on the Tube, but does anything?

I can't recall whether Mobile Hotspot was enabled, but it worked fine with a jailbreak and TetherMe.

I signed up in a 3 retail store at Paddington. No passport required.

Singapore

Singapore has several well-regarded prepaid carriers (SingTel, M1, and StarHub, at least); I went with StarHub.

I have read online in various forums that M1 service works in Malaysia (in roaming mode), but I'm not able to confirm this.

StarHub

Last used: August 2012

As of August 2012, StarHub has a 5-day "unlimited" Internet package for a reasonable price, which is great if you're just a tourist. The SIMs are supposedly availble at 7-11's, but I couldn't find any (only SingTel SIMs, for the most part). I ended up getting one in the basement of the Raffles City Shopping Center at the StarHub retail store. iPhone-compatible microSIMs are available.

I needed a passport to sign up (pretty predictable for Singapore). Activation is immediate. Speeds were great and coverage is not an issue, given that this is Singapore.

Works great with Mobile Hotspot, no extra charge.

China

As of May 2009, the only 3G carrier compatible with foreign GSM phones was China Unicom.

China Unicom

Last used: June 2009

Note: previously I claimed that I had signed up at a mom-and-pop convenience store in Beijing. That was incorrect. I have now corrected the record.

I don't have a lot of notes about this service, but I was able to sign up for China Unicom by asking my hotel in Beijing to help me. If I recall correctly, the concierge bought my SIM and helped me sign up for the data plan I wanted; the carrier's English support was poor or non-existent. Once I was signed up, the coverage was fair (quite good in Beijing and Shanghai), speeds were reasonable, and it was extremely cheap.

I did not need to supply my passport to sign up.

Slovenia

I used Si.mobil, basically chosen on a whim.

Si.mobil

Last used: June 2014

Si.mobil was cheap and excellent. They are probably my favorite European carrier to date, nosing just past Austria's A1 based on their fantastic coverage. We were able to get good 3G service on all of our iOS devices throughout Slovenia (Bled, Ljubljana, and various highways). Speeds were very good and indoor coverage was not a problem. There is no LTE service on Si.mobil as of June 2014.

The only issue with Si.mobil was finding the right kind of SIM to buy. The usually very informative Prepaid with Data Wiki is surprisingly thin on information and instructions for all of the various Slovenian pre-paid providers, including Si.mobil. What it doesn't tell you is that you'll probably want the SIMPLnet starter package, which is different than the SIMPL starter package that includes voice service but can only be activated by registering (in person) with Si.mobil, and which does not appear to offer the excellent and cheap SIMPLnet data packages. Not knowing the difference, I made the mistake of purchasing 2 SIMPL packages at a Big Bang (electronics retailer) just past the Austrian/Slovenian border, where the otherwise very helpful assistant was not aware of the difference, either. Upon inserting the SIMPL SIMs and finding no way to activate the service, I did some more research and discovered my mistake.

I then visited the Si.mobil retail shop near Bled (which was more like a kiosk), where they only had 1 SIMPLnet package. Another Si.mobil retail shop in Ljubljana had none, but referred me to the nearby Big Bang. The assistant at this Big Bang had never heard of SIMPLnet, but I was able to point out the SIMPLnet starter package in their display case and purchase the additional package that I needed.

The difficulty of finding a SIMPLnet starter package aside, once the SIM is inserted into your device, activation is trivial. Just open your web browser and visit any URL. You'll be taken to the Si.mobil status page for your service, where you'll see your 5€ starting credit and an option to activate the SIMPLnet GIGA 1 1GB/30 day plan; or add additional credits using a SIMPL voucher, which can be purchased at any Si.mobil shop or Big Bang. (SIMPL credits work with both the SIMPL and SIMPLnet service.) I had purchased 2 additional 5€ credit vouchers so that I could select the SIMPLnet GIGA 2 2GB/30 day plan on each of my devices, which I did easily by typing the 14-digit code into the form on the status page and hitting submit. The additional credit was instantly added to my account, and I was then able to select the GIGA 2 plan. Activation was instant and hassle-free. Tethering on iOS devices is supported.

The SIMPLnet starter package comes with a paper pamphlet which explains all of the activation and credit top-up steps in simple and excellent English.

No information of any kind was required to purchase and activate the SIMPLnet starter packages — just fork over the cash and receive your SIMs.

Given the ease of activation (once the proper SIMs were found!), the cheap plans, the good speeds and the fantastic country-wide coverage, I would happily choose Si.mobil again.

Spain

As of March 2015, prepaid choices in Spain are pretty pathetic for a Western European country. The best of the bunch, in my opinion, is Vodafone.

Vodafone

Last used: March 2015

Vodafone offers 2 relatively attractive packages (relative to other Spanish carriers, that is; not to carriers in other Western European countries). Both are on the "y user" prepaid plan: Superyuser and Megayuser. Superyuser maxes out at 1.2GB in 30 days, and Megayuser maxes out at 1.6GB in 30 days. They are fairly expensive for what you get and cannot be renewed or topped up before your 30 days expires, as far as I could tell, though I believe you can simply buy the same plan again before your 30 days are up. I was not able to test this as I was only in Spain for a short time and did not run out of data on my phone.

Unfortunately, the Vodafone store where I signed up for service did not have any pre-packaged Megayuser SIMs, only Superyuser, and they claimed that I could not simply purchase a Superyuser package and then switch to Megayuser without paying for both plans from the start, because the pre-packaged SIMs come with credit towards the plan they're packaged for. (I've never run into this problem in other countries, for what it's worth.) Keep this in mind when you sign up for service and consider looking for a store that carries Megayuser SIMs before you start getting involved in a sign-up process.

Despite the cryptic warnings on the Pre-paid with Data Wiki about paying extra to activate service at official Vodafone stores, as opposed to resellers or mom-and-pop shops, I had no problems signing up at one of the official Vodafone stores in Sevilla. The process was fast and easy, and was handled completely by a helpful assistant. Our service was working before we walked out the door. We did not have to pay extra for anything. My recommendation is that you seek out an official Vodafone store and, if told you need to pay extra for anything, walk out and find another.

Note that you will need your passport to sign up. Also, keep in mind that, as with everything in Spain, arriving during siesta or a national holiday (or both!) means you may need to wait awhile before you can find a store that's open. Due to our truly unfortunate timing, we weren't able to get SIMs until 2 days after we arrived.

For the iPad, Vodafone offers a data-only "turista" plan with 1.5GB in 30 days for a bit cheaper than the Megayuser plan. I purchased this plan for my iPad, and I started getting close to my 1.5GB cap toward the end of my trip. When I tried to recharge or re-purchase this plan at a Vodafone store in Valencia, I was told (probably incorrectly) that I could not recharge and that my only option was to switch to a Megayuser plan on the same SIM. I paid my € 20 and moved on, but I'm actually not sure whether this even worked, as I never received an activation notice and ended up not exceeding the 1.5GB from the original plan anyway. (In retrospect, I should have simply gone to another store and purchased a new data-only SIM, which would have been cheaper than switching the the Megayuser plan in the first place.)

Vodafone offers LTE service on these plans and the data rates in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, and Sevilla were pretty good. On trains between those cities, service varied generally from 3G to GPRS, but I could only get LTE in or around cities along the routes.

Tethering on all of these plans worked fine with my iOS devices and Macs.

Overall, the data speeds and coverage were good. My only complaint is the small plan sizes, but they're no worse than any of the other options in Spain.

Vietnam

Several prepaid carriers here. I went with Vinaphone.

Vinaphone

Last used: July 2012

Vinaphone has a good deal: "Max" plans with 400mb at high speed (7mbps) and a per-plan allowance per month at either 2mbps or 384kbps after that. (Not clear to me which speed is enforced; for the record, the guy who signed me up said it was 2mbps.) In any case, the plan can be renewed at any time to re-start the high-speed data service.

Make sure to sign up at a Post Office, where you will pay the standard rate for the SIM. All of the independent mobile vendors we tried in Hanoi wanted to charge us a large mark-up over the retail SIM price of 65000 VND, even when I pointed at the price printed on the SIM card. They would not budge, either. We were not asked to provide ID when signing up at the post office.

The agent who helped me at the Post Office signed me up for one of the U plans, rather than one of the Max plans. I think he claimed that it provided the fastest data rate, despite the fact that it wasn't as good a value as the Max plans, but I'm not sure if that's correct. (I may have misunderstood the details of the Max plan.)

Vinaphone probably has the best support for English prompts of any carrier in a non-English-speaking country.

Surprisingly, I was able to access Twitter without any problems, despite my understanding the the government blocks access to it. The agent also told me that Facebook worked just fine. (I didn't verify that.)

We had good speeds in Hanoi, and decent speeds/coverage in Ha Long Bay, with some outages in the latter while on the boat in the Bay.

Worked great with Mobile Hotspot.

Myanmar

Last used: August 2012

Myanmar is changing rapidly. Apparently until sometime in May or June of 2012, it wasn't even possible for foreigners to sign up for mobile service at all (though you could apparently rent a CDMA phone). However, as of August 2012, you can now purchase a prepaid GSM SIM for a standard GSM phone for about 20500 kyat. Our Yangon-based tour agent took us to a shop nearby his offices in Yangon, where I bought the SIM and activated it. (I was charged an additional 3000 kyat to cut the standard SIM down to the iPhone microSIM form-factor, which took all of 30 seconds.) The SIM comes with some indeterminate amount of voice credits and expires in 28 days, after which you have to buy a new SIM. There's also no way to top up your SIM, as far as I know.

Myanmar is a bit different than any of the other countries mentioned here as it doesn't currently provide data service to foreigners on its prepaid mobile GSM network. (I did see an ad in the Bagan airport for GSM SIM rentals, including data service, for $4 per day, but I was already on my way out at the time, so I didn't try it.) Since traveling in Myanmar is a bit difficult without an agent, I decided to buy the SIM anyway, just in case I needed to get in touch with my agent if something went wrong.

I'm told that the locals (the rich ones, anyway) have data service on their handsets. It's not clear to me whether these are CDMA handsets or GSM.

Anyway, for now, this appears to be a voice-only service for foreigners.

Malaysia

There are at least 2 well-regarded prepaid carriers: U Mobile and Maxis.

As of Aug 2012, U Mobile has up to 42Mbps speeds for prepaid 3G, but limited coverage -- 3G is generally only available in big cities; outside those areas, data runs on the Celcom EDGE network. Notably, U Mobile 3G is not available in Malacca, although it was rumored to be coming to Malacca in Q3 2012. U Mobile has a very cheap RM28 "Unlimited Internet" plan (~$8.50 USD) with 500MB/mo (full speed, "unlimited" at lower speed after quota), 100 min, and 30 SMS.

Maxis' prepaid service is called Hotlink. It's more expensive than U Mobile and appears to be capped at 384Kbps, but Maxis has much better 3G coverage outside the big cities (appears to be 3G speeds in most of Malacca, for example). Plans are changing all the time, but as of Aug 2012, the best appears to be the monthly plan for RM68 for 3GB/mo.

Hotlink is available in the Kuala Lumpur airport, just before you go through immigration, but also in the arrivals area after customs. U Mobile does not appear to be available at the airport.

Celcom and Digi, the other mobile carriers, supposedly have extremely slow "3G" service for their prepaid offerings.

U Mobile

Last used: August 2012

U Mobile is not available at the Kuala Lumpur airport, unlike the other 3 prepaid carriers. However, finding a U Mobile shop isn't a problem -- SIMs and top-ups are available at 7-Elevens and many small mobile shops around the city. I picked mine up at a mobile vendor inside Wisma Cosway, just south-west of KLCC. (There's a 7-Eleven there, as well, but they didn't sell micro-SIMs that are compatible with the iPhone 4 and later, and the cashier there referred me to the mobile vendor inside the Cosway.)

Activation was immediate. The U Mobile prepaid SIM cost RM8, and I bought an RM30 top-up card to sign up for the "Unlimited Internet" plan for RM28. The woman running the shop activated my SIM, topped up my account, and selected the proper plan for me (after I showed her the U Mobile web page with the specific plan I wanted), but I could have easily done it myself with U Mobile's excellent English instructions.

Note that, despite the fact that it was a small mobile shop, I was required to provide my passport to the woman behind the counter, who used my passport data to register my SIM. (I find it hard to believe that a 7-Eleven cashier would have done the same, but who knows?)

The best speedtest.net result I achieved with the U Mobile service was 10.57mbps down and 1.35mbps up, but I wasn't able to reach those speeds very often; the mean was about 1.25mbps down and 0.74mbps up. Speeds were noticeably slower inside KL malls and other large buildings.

Note that Mobile Hotspot was *not* enabled on my iPhone 4S with this plan.

Overall, I was probably more disappointed with U Mobile than with any other carrier I used throughout SE Asia in the summer of 2012 (except, obviously, for Myanmar). U Mobile's theoretical speeds are excellent, but in practice, I rarely, if ever, achieved them. Next time I'm in Malaysia, I'll probably try Maxis's Hotlink prepaid service.

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